France Country in western Europe

bounded to the northeast by Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany, east by Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, south by the Mediterranean Sea, southwest by Spain and Andorra, and west by the Atlantic Ocean. Government Under the 1958 Fifth Republic constitution, amended in 1962 and 1995, France has a two-chamber legislature and a `shared executive´ government. The legislature comprises a national assembly, with 577 deputies elected for five-year terms from single-member constituencies following a two-ballot run-off majority system, and a senate, whose 321 members are indirectly elected, a third at a time, triennially for nine-year terms from groups of local councillors. Twenty-two national-assembly and 13 senate seats are elected by overseas départements (administrative regions) and territories, and 12 senate seats by French nationals abroad. The national assembly is the dominant chamber. The senate can temporarily veto legislation, but its vetoes can be overridden by the national assembly. France's executive is functionally divided between the president and prime minister. The president, elected for a seven-year term by direct universal suffrage after gaining a majority in either a first or second run -off ballot, functions as head of state, commander in chief of the armed forces, and guardian of the constitution. The president selects the prime minister, presides over cabinet meetings, countersigns government bills, negotiates foreign treaties, and can call referenda and dissolve the national assembly (although only one dissolution a year is permitted). The prime minister is selected from the ranks of the national assembly. According to the constitution, ultimate control over policymaking rests with the prime minister and council of ministers. The president and prime minister work with ministers from political and technocratic backgrounds, assisted by a skilled and powerful civil service. A nine-member constitutional council (selected every three years in a staggered manner by the state president and the presidents of the senate and national assembly, and serving nine-year, nonrenewable terms) and a Conseil d'Etat (`council of state´), staffed by senior civil servants, rule on the legality of legislation passed. At the local level there are 21 regional councils concerned with economic planning. Below these are 96 département councils and almost 36,000 town and village councils. Corsica has its own directly elected 61-seat parliament with powers to propose amendments to national-assembly legislation. There are four overseas dé partements (French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Ré union) with their own elected general and regional councils, two overseas ` collective territories´ (Mayotte and St Pierre and Miquelon) administered by appointed commissioners, and four overseas territories (French Polynesia, the French Southern and Antarctic Territories, New Caledonia , and the Wallis and Futuna Islands) governed by appointed high commissioners, which form constituent parts of the French Republic, returning deputies to the national legislature. History For earlier periods of French history, see France: history to 1515, France: history 1515-1815, and France: history 1815-1945. The aftermath of World War II Although Paris was physically undamaged in World War II, many cities, such as Brest, Rouen, Lorient, Le Havre, and Caen, were in ruins. The French had suffered considerable economic privations during the years 1940-44; and France in 1944 was in the midst of an inflation that was threatening the very existence of the middle class. France's internal problems were not its only ones. The pre-1939 French colonial empire was on the verge of disintegration. Syria and Lebanon had already achieved independence; the French West Africa possessions were demanding at least a measure of self-government, and some nationalists were calling for outright independence. In Indochina (now Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos) the communists and other nationalists soon launched a full-scale war of independence against France (the Indochina War). These colonial problems drained France's economy severely in the post-war years and had considerable repercussions on internal French politics. Towards a new constitution A constituent assembly charged with drawing up a constitution for a Fourth Republic was elected in 1945, an election in which women voted in France for the first time. The Communists were returned as the strongest party because of their important role in the wartime resistance, closely followed by the Socialists and a new political organization known as the Mouvement Républicain Populaire (MRP), a group of the progressive centre drawing considerable strength from former Catholic resistance fighters. When the constituent assembly met, Charles de Gaulle returned to the people the powers he had exercised as head of the provisional government formed at the liberation in 1944. Having been given a new mandate, he formed a government drawn from the three main parties, and pledged to implement a far- reaching social programme. However, de Gaulle resigned in January 1946 because he did not want to be a figurehead president in the manner of the Third Republic, yet already found himself dependent on the political parties, especially the Communists and Socialists. Throughout 1946 France was searching for a new constitution. The reconciliation of a sovereign legislature with a stable executive was the stumbling block, though the seriousness of the country's economic position clearly pointed to the need for a strong government. A new constitution was eventually approved in a referendum in October. Under the new constitution a second chamber, the Council of the Republic, with members chosen by indirect election, was given a voice, though not a decisive one, in the legislature; the president was to be elected by the two chambers in joint session. There were also provisions for the organization of the French Union - the new term for France's depleted colonial empire. The Fourth Republic (1946-58): general characteristics and developments Despite attempts to correct some of the flaws of the Third Republic, the new constitution once again provided for a weak executive and a powerful national assembly. With 26 impermanent governments being formed during the period of the Fourth Republic, real power passed to the civil service, which, by introducing a new system of ` indicative economic planning´, engineered rapid economic reconstruction. The peaceful decolonization of Morocco and Tunisia in 1956 and the creation of the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1958 were also important achievements. In contrast, the forcible expulsion of the French from Indochina in 1954 was for many a national humiliation, and the bitter colonial conflict in Algeria was to bring about the demise of the Fourth Republic itself. The Blum government of 1946-47 In the November 1946 elections, which created the first national assembly of the Fourth Republic, the Socialists fell to third place among the leading parties. The Communists were still the strongest single party, but the majority in the assembly was anticommunist. In the new conditions of equipoise between Communists and the MRP, the Socialists, despite their depleted numbers, secured the vital position in the middle of the political seesaw, and it was in these circumstances that in December Lé on Blum formed a purely Socialist government. Blum's stopgap government launched an attack on the price rises and on financial instability. Attempts were also made to settle the Indochinese question, where the French were attempting to regain control of their colonies from the nationalists, who had themselves ousted the Japanese- sponsored regime at the end of World War II. The government also laid the foundations of a new Anglo- French entente. In January 1947 the assembly installed as first president of the new republic the Socialist Vincent Auriol, a close friend and colleague of Blum. Governments and events from 1947 to 1957 Blum resigned for reasons of health and was succeeded by Paul Ramadier (also Socialist), who headed a coalition. The change of government did not interfere with the negotiations for a treaty of alliance with the UK, and the treaty was eventually signed at Dunkirk on 4 March 1947. However, the economic situation was deteriorating, and there soon appeared a deepening division in the government between the Communists and the rest of the ministers. This period was also marked by the formation of the Rassemblement du Peuple Français (RPF, `rally of the French people´). The RPF was an organization fostered by de Gaulle as a nationwide movement of national union, and though he was accused by the left, especially the Communists, of favouring reactionary elements, the movement constituted a new and popular force that for a time materially affected the political balance in France. But meanwhile the economic situation was growing steadily worse. The political situation was further weakened by the refusal of the Communists to vote for the funding of military operations against the nationalists in Indochina and to suppress a revolt in Madagascar. The Communists then left the government in 1947. In September 1948 a coalition under the Radical Socialist Henri Queuille took office, and a period of relative political stability followed. The following year France joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as a founder member. In July 1949 Queuille's government fell. There was a series of rapid changes of government before political stability returned with Georges Bidault as premier. By early 1950 the situation in Indochina was becoming extremely serious. Jean de Lattre de Tassigny was appointed commander in chief of the army and French high commissioner there in an attempt to retrieve the situation; his subsequent premature death probably put the seal on certain French defeat in the area. In May 1950 Robert Schuman, the French foreign minister, put forward his `Schuman Plan´, which eventually developed into the European Coal and Steel Community, the basis of what is now the European Union. By mid-1951 many observers believed that de Gaulle's return to power was imminent. After a temporary improvement, the economic situation was weakening again, a bitter domestic battle was raging on the question of state aid to church schools, and abroad the Indochina crisis continued. In relation to the planned European Defence Community there was considerable controversy in France about whether a European army should include West German forces, both because would involve the recreation of a German army, regarded by many French people as synonymous with the recreation of German `militarism´, and because it would subsume French forces within a supranational army. After a series of short-lived governments, René Pleven became premier in August 1951, and was succeeded at the beginning of 1952 by Edgar Faure, a Radical Socialist. Faure reopened the question of Tunisian independence, but his government lasted only a few weeks, and in March 1952 Antoine Pinay, an Independent Republican, succeeded him. In July the Gaullists split on a question of party discipline, and after this time de Gaulle's prospects of a return to power receded rapidly, despite the country's blatant political instability, illustrated by constant changes of government. In May 1953, conscious of a loss of popular support, de Gaulle resigned from the leadership of the RPF, and withdrew from politics. After a prolonged period without a government, France got a new premier, Laniel, in June 1953. In October 1953 the National Assembly voted in favour of continuing the Indochina War, although the French position there was rapidly becoming untenable. The fall of Dien Bien Phu in May 1954 shocked French public opinion deeply, and the following month the government was defeated on an Indochina issue. The new premier was the Radical Socialist Pierre Mendès-France. In July the fighting in Indochina was ended by an agreement reached at Geneva. This was generally regarded in France as a crushing surrender; the 80-year French occupation of Indochina came formally to an end on 29 April 1955. Mendès-France's North Africa policy eventually led to his defeat in the assembly in February 1955, and he was succeeded by Faure. The Franco-Tunisian home-rule agreements were signed in Paris in June 1955, and in October the former Moroccan sultan, deposed by the French two years earlier, was restored to his throne. But by this time the bitter armed conflict between nationalists and the French army and settlers in Algeria was becoming serious. At home political stability and possibly the Fourth Republic itself were temporarily threatened by the rise of the violently right-wing poujadist movement, although its popularity was only transient. The Saarland referendum in October, with its overwhelming victory for the pro-German parties, was another blow to France. In November Faure's government was defeated on a question of electoral reform. The general elections of January 1956 produced an indecisive result, but in February the Socialist Guy Mollet became premier. Although governing with a precariously balanced coalition, he was premier longer that any other holder of the office under the Fourth Republic. Moroccan independence was announced in March 1956; but it was the increasingly critical Algerian situation that was basically responsible for the defeat of Mollet's government in June 1957, and of its successors. At the beginning of 1958 the European Economic Community (EEC) came into being. In March 1957 France had been one of the signatories of the Treaty of Rome, which had established the EEC, but in 1958 it seemed that France would not be able to provide it with the expected leadership. There was inflation and economic stagnation at home, and the insoluble Algerian problem across the Mediterranean. France appeared to be moving rapidly towards chaos. The coming of the Fifth Republic In May 1958 a revolt of French settlers and army officers in Algeria against what they regarded as the effeteness of the government in Paris and its handling of the Algerian war led to the overthrow of the Fourth Republic. De Gaulle was swept back to power on a wave of popular enthusiasm. He indicated that this time he must be given the means to take whatever measures he deemed necessary to save France, and his policies were approved by a referendum in September. A new constitution establishing the Fifth Republic came into force in October. The de Gaulle era, 1958-69 In December 1958 de Gaulle was elected as the Fifth Republic's first president, with wide executive powers. The franc was devalued, and a series of drastic measures enacted, aimed at stabilizing the economy. In the longer term, the de Gaulle era was one of economic growth and large-scale rural-to-urban migration. The relationship between France and its overseas possessions was re- examined: those territories wishing to retain ties with France entered the French Community, which had superseded the French Union. Guinea, however, voted for separation from France and became an independent state without French connections in October 1958. By 1961 so many overseas possessions had gained independence within the French Community that the Community itself was dissolved. France's economy grew stronger through the succeeding years, though some underlying weaknesses remained, and its foreign policy developed distinctive traits. France took steps to become an independent military nuclear power just when Britain was abandoning the role. Although retaining friendly relations with Britain and the USA at the start of his regime (he paid a successful state visit to Britain in 1960 and had cordial talks in Paris with President Kennedy in 1961), de Gaulle took the decisive step of actively promoting closer Franco-German relations, and so officially ended a period of hatred and mistrust between the two countries that had been virtually continuous since 1870. Close economic and cultural links were established between France and the German Federal Republic, and in January 1963 de Gaulle and the German chancellor Konrad Adenauer signed the Franco- German `reconciliation treaty´ in Paris. Meanwhile de Gaulle's decision that the Algerian problem could be solved only by granting full independence to the nationalists caused bitterness among the settlers and officers who had brought him to power in the expectation that he would win the war there for France. There were abortive revolts against de Gaulle in Algeria in 1960 and 1961, and several attempts were made on his life, then and later, by supporters of the Organisation de l'Armée Secrète (OAS), which during 1960-61 carried out a systematic terrorist campaign in both Algeria and France. As time passed it attracted some of de Gaulle's foremost original supporters, such as Gen Raoul Salan, Georges Bidault, and Jacques Soustelle, but by 1963 the OAS was a spent force. Algeria became independent in 1962, after a referendum had approved de Gaulle's policy there. Although there was at times considerable criticism of de Gaulle's government, not merely among extremists but among moderates who felt that he was riding roughshod over democratic principles, his supporters won an overall majority over all other parties in the elections in November 1962. Under de Gaulle, France dominated the European Economic Community, and in January 1963 vetoed Britain's application to join it. De Gaulle distrusted Britain's motives, and was suspicious of Britain's ties with the USA at a time when France was attempting to become the leader of a third ` European´ force, which would be independent of both the Soviet and the `Anglo-Saxon´ (Anglo-American) blocs. This pronouncedly independent line was to show itself in France's withdrawal of its fleets from NATO commands, in its first atomic- bomb test in 1960 and hydrogen- bomb test in 1968, and in de Gaulle's outspoken criticism in 1965 of US policy in Vietnam. In 1965 de Gaulle was re-elected president under the new constitutional arrangement whereby the president was chosen by universal suffrage. However, the election was close: the first ballot failed to give him an outright majority, and in the second ballot his left-wing opponent Franç ois Mitterrand polled nearly 45% of the vote. De Gaulle continued with his independent approach to foreign policy. He took tough action with the EEC in the course of 1966, and in the same year announced the French withdrawal from the integrated military command of NATO, with complete withdrawal to occur in 1969. Nevertheless, de Gaulle's position seemed uncertain. His paternalistic approach to domestic affairs, reflected in censorship and centralization, brought about a public reaction, and in the general elections of 1967 the Gaullists and the `right coalition´ won only a bare majority. In May 1968 a student revolt, largely in the Latin Quarter of Paris, was followed by the most extensive wave of strikes that France had known since 1936. The government was severely shaken, but de Gaulle recovered; the elections of 1968 returned an enormous Gaullist majority, and a new phase of Gaullism seemed to be inaugurated by the appointment of Maurice Couve de Murville as prime minister. By November de Gaulle was in a sufficiently strong position to refuse to devalue the franc. But the referendum of 1969, which sought to reform the Senate and local government, went against de Gaulle. He resigned in April 1969 and took no further part in French public life. Pompidou's presidency, 1969-74 De Gaulle's former prime minister Georges Pompidou was elected president on de Gaulle's resignation. Pompidou maintained some Gaullist principles in foreign policy, such as retaining independent possession of nuclear weapons, the desire for understanding with communist countries, and a critical attitude towards Israel.

Germany Federal Republic of Country in central Europe

bounded north by the North and Baltic Seas and Denmark, east by Poland and the Czech Republic, south by Austria and Switzerland, and west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Government With reunification in 1990 the German government remained almost identical to that of former West Germany. It is based on the West German constitution (the Basic Law), drafted in 1948-49 by the Allied military governors and German provincial leaders in an effort to create a stable, parliamentary form of government, to diffuse authority, and to safeguard liberties. It borrowed from British, American, and neighbouring European constitutional models. It established, firstly, a federal system of government built around ten (16 since reunification) Lä nder (federal states), each with its own constitution, elected parliament, and government headed by a minister -president. The Länder have original powers in education, police, and local government, and are responsible for the administration of federal legislation through their own civil services. They have local taxation powers and are assigned shares of federal income tax and VAT revenues, being responsible for 50% of government spending. The constitution, secondly, created a new federal parliamentary democracy, built around a two- chamber legislature comprising a directly elected 672-member lower house, the Bundestag (federal assembly), and an indirectly elected 69-member upper house, the Bundesrat (federal council). Bundestag representatives are elected for four-year terms by universal suffrage under a system of ` personalized proportional representation´ in which electors have one vote for an ordinary constituency seat and one for a Land party list, enabling adjustments in seats gained by each party to be made on a proportional basis. Political parties must win at least 5% of the national vote to qualify for shares of `list seats´. Bundesrat members are nominated and sent in blocs by Länder governments, each state being assigned between three and five seats depending on population size. The Bundestag is the dominant parliamentary chamber, electing from the ranks of its majority party or coalition a chancellor (prime minister) and cabinet to form the executive government. Once appointed, the chancellor can only be removed by a `constructive vote of no confidence´ in which a majority votes positively in favour of an alternative leader. Legislation is effected through all- party committees. The Bundesrat has few powers to initiate legislation, but has considerable veto authority. All legislation relating to Länder responsibilities requires its approval, constitutional amendments need a two-thirds Bundesrat (and Bundestag) majority, while the Bundesrat can temporarily block bills or force amendments in joint Bundestag-Bundesrat `conciliation committees´. Bundestag members also join an equal number of representatives elected by Länder parliaments in a special Bundesversammlung (federal convention) every five years to elect a federal president as head of state. The president, however, has few powers and is primarily a titular figure. The 1949 constitution is a written document. Adherence to it is policed by an independent federal constitutional court based at Karlsruhe which is staffed by 16 judges, who serve terms of up to 12 years. All-party committees from the Bundestag and Bundesrat select eight each. The court functions as a guarantor of civil liberties and adjudicator in Federal-Land disputes. (Similar courts function at the Land level.) History For German history prior to 1949 see Germany: history 1919-49. For the earlier history of Germany see Germany: history to 1519, Germany: history 1519-1815, and Germany: history 1815-1919. Germany divided In 1949 Germany was divided by the Allied powers and the USSR, forming the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) in the eastern part of the country (formerly the Soviet zone of occupation), and the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) in the west (comprising the British, US, and French occupation zones under Allied military control following Germany's surrender at the end of World War II in 1945). For the next four and a half decades West and East Germany were divided by the policies of the Cold War, with West Germany becoming the strongest European NATO power, and East Germany a vital member of Comecon and the Warsaw Pact. During the era of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet medium-range nuclear missiles were stationed on East German soil. The formation of the Federal Republic In post-war West Germany, a policy of demilitarization, decentralization, and democratization was instituted by the Allied control powers and a new, intentionally provisional, constitution framed, which included eventual German reunification. The Federal Republic (West Germany) came into existence on 23 May 1949, when the Basic Law, or constitution, was signed by members of the Parliamentary Council in the presence of the Allied military governors (thereafter called commissioners). West Berlin was blockaded by the Soviet Union 1948-49 (see Berlin blockade), but survived to form a constituent Land in the Federal Republic, after an airlift operation by the Allied powers. Adenauer comes to power in West Germany Politics during the Federal Republic's first decade were dominated by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), led by the popular Konrad Adenauer . The first elections to the Bundestag, or lower house of the German Federal parliament, were held on 15 August 1949, the Christian Democrats emerging as the strongest party. Theodor Heuss was elected first president of the Republic, and Adenauer was elected first German Federal chancellor (16 September). The first government of the Republic was a right-wing coalition. In the declaration of policy of his government on 20 September Adenauer voiced the determination of his ministers to cooperate closely with the Western powers. In retaliation for the institution of the German Federal Republic, an East German state, the German Democratic Republic, was established under Soviet auspices in the eastern zone of Germany in October 1949. Economic recovery under Adenauer Chancellor Adenauer and his economics minister, Ludwig Erhard, established a successful approach to economic management, termed the ` social market economy´, which combined the encouragement of free- market forces with strategic state intervention on the grounds of social justice. This new approach, combined with aid under the Marshall Plan and the enterprise of the labour force (many of whom were refugees from the partitioned East), brought rapid growth and reconstruction during the 1950s and 1960s, an era termed the `miracle years´. In additional factor in Germany's economic performance was that it did not have the rearmament burden of the other leading Western countries. Western defence alliances During this period, West Germany was also reintegrated into the international community. Adenauer's government supported the Federal Republic's proposed participation in West European collective defence. This subject, raising the question of a recreated German army and possible conscription, caused considerable controversy in West Germany over the next few years, and in many other countries, especially France, where the prospect of a new German army was viewed with much popular misgiving, in the light of recent history. The German Social Democrats (SPD) were opposed to the Federal Republic tying itself militarily to the West, primarily because they claimed that this would prejudice any chance of German reunification with East Germany; and this fear was played upon by Soviet propaganda. However, Adenauer had the necessary majority to carry through his policy, with only minor modifications. In the elections of 1953 his party increased its majority. In 1952 it was agreed that on West Germany's formal joining of the proposed European Defence Community (EDC) the Allied occupation should end, although Allied troops would continue to be stationed in the Federal Republic for German and European defence purposes. The London and Paris agreements, which followed French rejection of the EDC in 1954, resulted in West Germany being invited to join NATO and officially restored to the Federal Republic full sovereignty. French distrust of the German rearmament that this involved was allayed by various safeguards. As a result, the Western European Union, of which the Republic was a member, came into being on 7 May 1955; and seven days later the Federal Republic formally joined NATO, becoming a loyal supporter of the USA. A small regular army was soon built up; but conscription was not started until 1956-57. In 1955 Adenauer visited Moscow. As a result, diplomatic relations were established between the USSR and West Germany and the USSR returned to Germany several thousand German prisoners still detained in the USSR. European integration West Germany was admitted to the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC; the predecessor of the OECD) in 1949; and became a full member of the Council of Europe in 1951. It was one of the founder members of the European Coal and Steel Community. When in 1955, against Adenauer's advice, the inhabitants of Saarland voted against `Europeanization´, and by implication, in favour of union with West Germany, relations between France and the Federal Republic were temporarily strained. Agreement was eventually reached, however, as a result of which Saarland was united to West Germany at midnight on 31 December 1956. West Germany was one of the signatories of the Treaty of Rome in 1957, under which the European Economic Community (EEC) came into being on 1 January 1958. Germany has continued to play a dominant role in the EEC and its successors, the European Community (EC) and European Union (EU), and has been a constant advocate of closer European integration. After Charles de Gaulle's return to power in France in May 1958 relations between France and West Germany grew closer, due partly to a personal friendship between Adenauer and de Gaulle. In January 1963 a `treaty of reconciliation´ between the two countries was signed in Paris. When Adenauer retired from the chancellorship later in the year, however, the warmth of Franco-German relations began to diminish and differences between the two countries concerning the future course of such organizations as the EEC and NATO became more open. Government in East Germany The People's Council, elected in 1948, and consisting mainly of a communist-dominated Socialist Unity Party (SED), was converted into a People's Chamber (Volkskammer) on the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Germany (7 October 1949). After that all elections were on the pattern of a one -party list of candidates. East Germany dissolved its five Lä nder (Brandenburg, Mecklenburg- West Pomerania, Saxony, Saxony- Anhalt, and Thuringia) in 1952, and its Chamber of States, or upper house, in 1958, vesting local authority in 15 Bezirke, or administrative districts. Under the 1968 constitution the supreme legislative and executive body in the German Democratic Republic was the Volkskammer (people's chamber), whose 500 members (including 66 from East Berlin) were elected every five years by universal suffrage. The sovietization of East Germany On the inauguration of East Germany, Wilhelm Pieck became the president, Otto Grotewohl (former leader of the SDP in the East) became premier, and Walter Ulbricht deputy premier. From the beginning the real power resided with Ulbricht, who was first secretary of the SED Politburo. After Pieck's death in 1960 the presidency was abolished, and a council of state was elected by the Volkskammer. Its chairman, who was given dictatorial powers, was Ulbricht. His position was further strengthened after Grotewohl's death in 1964. The years immediately after 1949 saw the rapid establishment of a communist regime on the Soviet model, involving the nationalization of industry, the formation of agricultural collectives, and the creation of a one- party political system. East Germany made periodic suggestions for talks on German reunification, but its drafts invariably included clauses designed to perpetuate forcibly its own communist regime, and were rejected by the Western powers and by West Germany. Shortly after its inauguration, East Germany recognized the Oder- Neisse line as its permanent boundary with Poland, and acknowledged the expulsion of over 2 million Germans from the Sudeten area of Czechoslovakia as ` permanent and just´. The 1953 revolt From its inception the poverty of East Germany contrasted markedly with the prosperity of West Germany, and the curbs on personal liberties added to a discontent that found expression in the thousands of refugees who poured into West Berlin, and thence to the Federal Republic, from the eastern sector. In June 1953 opposition to sovietization led, during food shortages, to severe rioting in East Berlin and in several other East German towns. In Berlin only the intervention of Soviet tanks restored order. The revolt was followed by repressive measures, and though the Democratic Republic was proclaimed a sovereign state in 1954 (recognized at first only by the communist powers), large Soviet forces continued to be stationed there until the collapse of the communist regime in 1989. The Berlin crisis of 1960-61 Friction between East and West Germany came to a head in 1960- 61, because of the continuing flow of refugees entering West Berlin from the east. This had caused the population of East Germany to decline sharply between 1949 and 1961 and was undoubtedly affecting its economy adversely. On 13 August 1961 East Germany closed the Berlin border, and subsequently built a heavily policed wall along it (see Berlin Wall). The flow of refugees was thus virtually stopped, though a limited number of sensational successful escapes continued to be made, together with many equally sensational and often fatal failures, which severely shocked public opinion in the West. From December 1963 an agreement was reached between the East and West Berlin authorities under which West Berliners could visit relatives in East Berlin and the Democratic Republic for limited periods at festive seasons, and some elderly citizens of East Germany were permitted to go and settle with their relatives in the West. Adenauer gives way to Erhard In 1959 Heuss was succeeded as West German president by Heinrich Lubke. After the elections of 1961 the Christian Democrats lost ground, and governed in a coalition with the Free Democrats (FDP). Though the economic boom continued, the CDU and its allies lost prestige on account of various government scandals, and an increasingly public rift between the ageing Chancellor Adenauer and his economics minister, Erhard, centring on the question of Adenauer's retirement. The emergence of a new and youthful SDP leader, Willy Brandt - who had vaulted to international prominence as mayor of West Berlin during the construction of the Berlin Wall - suggested a strong threat to future CDU dominance of West German politics. Erhard eventually succeeded Adenauer as chancellor in 1963 and resigned in 1966. Erhard had to face differences within his own party, and public controversy on such matters as to whether the law should be amended to allow for trials of war criminals to take place after May 1965 (when they would normally have qualified for the 20- year indemnity exemption). Additionally, relations with several Arab states were strained by West Germany's agreement to establish ambassadorial relations with Israel, to whom, by 1965, it had completed payment of large reparations for the Holocaust. A closer understanding with Britain was reflected in a highly successful state visit of Queen Elizabeth II to West Germany in 1965, and by a subsequent agreement between the two countries on a West German contribution towards the support costs of the British Army of the Rhine. In September 1965 Erhard led his party to victory in the federal general election. Brandt and Ostpolitik During the 1960s Willy Brandt played a major role in shifting the SPD away from its traditional Marxist affiliation towards a more moderate position. Support for the SPD steadily increased after this policy switch and the party joined the CDU in an uneasy `grand coalition´ (1966-69), with Brandt as the junior partner and foreign minister to CDU chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger. But by the later 1960s most younger people felt that the time had come to face realities and regularize West Germany's relations with its eastern neighbours. This mood found expression in Brandt's foreign policy of Ostpolitik (`eastern policy´), which sought reconciliation with Eastern Europe as a means of improving contacts between East and West Germany. The SDP, with Brandt as chancellor, gained power in 1969, with the support of the FDP under Walter Scheel (1919- ). Under Brandt's moderate socialist government, West Germany concluded treaties with Poland and the USSR (1970), treaties that normalized relations, recognized the de facto boundaries, and provided for limited cooperation in various fields. In 1972 a treaty was effected with East Germany, acknowledging East Germany's borders and separate existence and enabling both countries to enter the United Nations in 1973. In 1974 Brandt was forced to resign after the revelation that his personal assistant (Günther Guillaume) had been an East German spy, and was succeeded by Helmut Schmidt. Also in 1974, Gustav Heinemann (1899- 1976), president since 1969, was succeeded by Walter Scheel. Developments in East Germany in the 1960s and 1970s Apart from the unsuccessful uprisings of 1953, East Germany proved a notably quiescent member of the Eastern bloc. By the 1970s there was a considerable improvement in living standards and the availability of consumer goods. East Germany's policy of economic austerity had yielded good results, and by 1969 it had a higher per- capita GNP (gross national product) than Austria, Japan, and Italy, almost two-thirds that of West Germany, and it was the world's 10th industrial power. During the 1970s there was some relaxation in government rigidity, a more moderate political stance was adopted, and the Stalinist Walter Ulbricht was replaced as leader of the Socialist Unity Party (SED) by the pragmatic Erich Honecker. Economic and diplomatic relations with the West were extended. In 1972-73 the number of countries officially recognizing East Germany soared, and East Germany achieved international status as an independent state, although the West German constitution continued to declare that there was only one German nationality. Schmidt's centrist course As SPD chancellor of West Germany, Helmut Schmidt adhered to Ostpolitik and emerged as a leading advocate of European cooperation. In the 1976 general election Schmidt's SDP-FDP coalition won a narrow majority over the CDU-CSU alliance headed by Dr Helmut Kohl. The CSU is the more right-wing sister party of the CDU in Bavaria, and in the 1980 election the CDU-CSU alliance was headed by the CSU leader, the controversial Franz-Josef Strauss, but was once more comfortably defeated by the SPD-FDP coalition. Between 1980 and 1982, the left wing of the SPD and the liberal FDP were divided over military policy (in particular the proposed stationing of US nuclear missiles in West Germany) and economic policy. Chancellor Schmidt fought to maintain a moderate, centrist course but the FDP eventually withdrew from the federal coalition in 1982 and joined forces with the CDU, led by Helmut Kohl, to unseat the chancellor in a `positive vote of no confidence´. Helmut Schmidt immediately retired from politics and the SPD, led by Hans-Jochen Vögel, was heavily defeated in the Bundestag elections in 1983, losing votes on the left to the new environmentalist Green Party.

Germany | 07.09.2006 : Chancellor Unleashes New Defense Spending Debate

In recent years, Germany's army has changed drastically and some say should change more. Created in the Cold War era, the Bundeswehr no longer has to worry about defending its eastern border from a Soviet tank invasion.
Instead, it has become increasingly active in peacekeeping and humanitarian missions around the world. Right now German soldiers are deployed in 11 international missions, from Kosovo to the Democratic Republic of Congo. If Germany sends troops to Lebanon -- currently under debate -- that would make 12.

'Defense budget is not sacrosanct'

On Wednesday, Merkel told the German weekly Die Zeit that it is time for the country to take a new look at the role of the army. "We must ask ourselves, overall, if our military structures are valid for the future," Merkel said.

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Merkel inspected some German naval sites last week
She added that she would also consider increasing the military budget, pointing out that Germany spends less on its army than Finland, Norway or Holland, -- and much less than Italy, France, the UK or the US -- in terms of percentage of GNP.

"You cannot say that the planned defense budget for the next 20 years is sacrosanct," Merkel said. "A German government cannot say, 'Please, don't take part in any new conflicts in the next decades, because we can't afford it,'" she added.

An official plan to modernize the Bundeswehr -- to turn it from an unwieldy behemoth created to defend its own borders into a lithe organization ready to take on asymmetric threats around the world -- has been underway for several years. Known in policy circles simply as "the transformation," it is due to be completed by 2010.

'A good signal'

Many agree that German military defense should include diverse international deployments, but they complain that funding for the plan has thus far been inadequate.

"Unexpected deployments need to be additionally financed," said Bernhard Gertz, chief of a lobbying group called the German Federal Armed Forces Association (DBwV). "The defense minister can't be expected to finance it out of thin air. That just isn't serious, or professional."

GE Peddles LBO Loans in Europe as Profit From Light Bulbs Dims

General Electric Co.'s dwindling profit from light bulbs and dishwashers is driving the world's largest industrial company further into finance and the lucrative European market for leveraged loans.
GE's commercial-finance unit already is big enough to be the seventh-largest U.S. bank. That helps explain the lure of European takeovers, where demand for leveraged finance is increasing seven times faster than in the U.S and creating a bonanza for lenders.
Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt, who has failed to match the earnings growth GE achieved under predecessor Jack Welch, has a growing incentive to win more of the $17 billion that debt-laden companies pay annually in loan fees. While GE rose to 11th in U.S. leveraged loans from 20th in 2000, established lenders such as Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays Plc dominate the European market.
``Barclays and RBS are big enough to cope even with the scale and character of GE,'' said Richard Dunbar, a fund manager at Scottish Widows Investment Partnership, which oversees $140 billion including shares in both banks. ``New competition is never helpful, but there's enough business to go around.''
Fees of 2.5 percent, or $25 million for a $1 billion leveraged loan, have helped make commercial finance more than twice as profitable for Fairfield, Connecticut-based GE as industrial products, company reports and data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Fueled by LBOs
The loans are typically used in buyouts, where an acquirer piles debt onto the company it's purchasing. Unlike junk bonds, which also are rated below investment grade, the loans are secured on a company's assets, making repayment a safer bet in case of bankruptcy.
European leveraged loans more than doubled to $175 billion last year, stoked by an increase in borrowings for buyouts such as the $15.3 billion purchase of TDC A/S, Denmark's former state- owned telephone company, according to Bloomberg data. That compares with 15 percent growth in the U.S. to $529 billion.
GE has 60 bankers in Europe dedicated to leveraged loans, up from 10 two years ago. They were among the 600 managers whom GE Commercial Finance CEO Michael Neal, 52, convened at the Fairmont Monte Carlo this month to discuss strategies for making GE's banking business in Europe as big as it is in the U.S.
``Our goal is to become one of the top 10 arrangers of leveraged transactions in Europe,'' Sandeep Kamat, 43, GE's London-based head of European leveraged finance, said in a Feb. 3 telephone interview while attending the meeting in Monaco.
47th Place
That would have meant about $10 billion in loans in Europe last year -- and $250 million in fees at the industry average. Instead, GE ranked 47th with $51.1 million, Bloomberg data show. GE has been 10th or 11th in U.S. leveraged loans for the past four years.
GE in December beat BNP Paribas SA, Europe's No. 4 underwriter, to help arrange a $342 million loan for Poland's first leveraged buyout. Matthew Strassberg, a director at Mid- Europa Partners in London, which borrowed money to acquire Aster City Cable from Hicks Muse, said GE won in part because it was faster and more persistent.
``We could get answers from GE on the telephone right away instead of waiting days, and they were very quick to go through the loan documents,'' Strassberg said. ``They've actively been approaching us over the last year or so with the clear intention of getting involved in any new deals we might do. GE wants to be part of the structuring, the underwriting, and to take bigger upfront fees.''
Immelt's Struggle
Royal Bank of Scotland, based in Edinburgh, was the No. 1 arranger of European leveraged loans in 2005, with $26 billion in credits, followed by London-based Barclays, New York's Morgan Stanley and Paris-based BNP Paribas, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Arranging loans for leveraged buyouts, or LBOs, helped lift pretax earnings at Royal Bank of Scotland's corporate markets unit by 23 percent to a record 2.5 billion pounds ($4.3 billion) in the first half of 2005. Although the unit accounts for only a third of the bank's revenue, it generates two-thirds of pretax profit, company reports show.
Immelt is raising GE's bet on finance as he struggles to meet a goal of increasing earnings at an annual rate of at least 10 percent. Welch accomplished that feat during the last five years of his two-decade tenure.
``This looks like what Jack Welch was doing when he became CEO in the early 1980s,'' said William Batcheller, director of investment management at Youngstown, Ohio-based Butler Wick & Co., which owns about 691,000 GE shares. ``The difference is that Immelt has come in during a tough period.''
Since Immelt took over in 2001, GE's net income has risen an average of about 5 percent a year.
Light Bulbs, Loans
Financing, including credit cards and home loans, generated $59.3 billion for GE last year, or about 40 percent of its revenue from continuing operations, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
GE Commercial Finance has an operating margin of about 16.8 percent, compared with 7.8 percent at the industrial unit that includes light bulbs, appliances, motors and plastics, estimates Don MacDougall, an analyst at Bank of America Corp.
While GE has been making light bulbs since its founding in 1892, with inventor Thomas Edison as an original director, earnings from lighting haven't been disclosed for three years. GE reported $44 million in profit for 2002 on $2.4 billion in sales, according to its annual report.
``GE claims the light bulb unit breaks even,'' said Steve Hoedt, a Cleveland-based analyst at National City Corp., which owns more than 22 million GE shares. ``I guess they keep it for brand recognition.''
Cash Cows
GE has been making loans to companies since 1905. It bought Chicago-based Heller Financial Inc., whose customers included Amazon.com Inc. and Hilton Hotels Corp., for $5.3 billion in 2001 to bolster the financing unit, and last year acquired Antares Capital, a lender to mid-sized buyout firms.
While lighting and appliances may be among GE's least- profitable divisions, they generate $4 billion in cash annually to help fund faster-growing LBO lending.
``Make no mistakes,'' Immelt, 49, told analysts on Dec. 13. ``We run this set of businesses for cash and they generate a ton of cash.''
GE, the world's second-largest company by market value after Exxon Mobil Corp., started making high-yield, high-risk corporate loans in the U.S. in 1993 and now has about $50 billion outstanding. It entered the European market for leveraged finance in 2004 and since has loaned $7 billion to about 100 companies.
`Money is Cheap'
Most banks are focused on winning fees from buyout firms, which last year raised a record $134 billion for takeovers, according to Private Equity Intelligence Ltd., an industry research firm in London. That influx of cash is helping fuel the biggest LBOs since Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.'s record $31 billion purchase of RJR Nabisco Inc. in 1989.
Buyout firms typically fund two thirds of each acquisition with loans. That's been getting easier as competition to arrange leveraged loans increased, reducing borrowing costs.
Lenders charged a record low average of 1.6 percentage points above benchmark interest rates in October for loans to the average U.S. company rated BB, two levels below investment grade. The so-called spread was 1.97 points in January, down from more than 3 points two years ago.
In Europe, the average spread narrowed to an all-time low 2.34 percentage points last month.
``Money is cheap and there's lots of it,'' said John Cameron, 51, head of Royal Bank of Scotland's corporate markets division in London.
Standing Room Only
In a syndicated loan, the arranging bank underwrites the credit and collects the fee. It then parcels out about half of the fee to other lenders that agree to participate. Mostly, those lenders are banks. Increasingly, money managers are buying high- yield loans.
Fund managers such as Boston-based Eaton Vance Corp. bought about 40 percent of all European leveraged loans last year, up from 25 percent in 2004 and 4 percent in 1999, according to Standard & Poor's. In the U.S., they buy about 80 percent.
Eaton Vance's John Redding was one of 250 bankers and investors who crammed into the ballroom of London's Four Seasons Hotel on Jan. 11 as Ineos Group Holdings Plc executives explained a plan to borrow 9.8 billion pounds in high-yield bonds and leveraged loans. Ineos, based in Hampshire, England, needed the money to buy BP Plc's Chicago-based Innovene unit and become the world's No. 4 petrochemical company.

Washington and slavery

For most of his life, Washington operated his plantations as a typical Virginia slave owner. In the 1760s, he dropped tobacco (which was prestigious but unprofitable) and shifted to wheat growing and diversified into milling flour, weaving cloth, and distilling brandy. By the time of his death, there were 317 slaves at Mount Vernon.
Before the American Revolution, Washington expressed no moral reservations about slavery, but, by 1778, he had stopped selling slaves without their consent because he did not want to break up slave families.
In 1778, while Washington was at war, he wrote to his manager at Mount Vernon that he wished to sell his slaves and "to get quit of negroes", since maintaining a large (and increasingly elderly) slave population was no longer economically efficient. Washington could not legally sell the "dower slaves", however, and because these slaves had long intermarried with his own slaves, he could not sell his slaves without breaking up families.[21]
After the war, Washington often privately expressed a dislike of the institution of slavery. Despite these privately expressed misgivings, Washington never criticized slavery in public. In fact, as President, Washington brought nine household slaves to the Executive Mansion in Philadelphia. By Pennsylvania law, slaves who resided in the state became legally free after six months. Washington rotated his household slaves between Mount Vernon and Philadelphia so that they did not earn their freedom, a scheme he attempted to keep hidden from his slaves and the public and one which was, in fact, against the law.[22]
Washington was the only prominent, slaveholding Founding Father to emancipate his slaves. He did not free his slaves in his lifetime, however, but instead included a provision in his will to free his slaves upon the death of his wife. His actions were influenced by his close relationship with the Marquis de La Fayette.
Washington's failure to act publicly upon his growing private misgivings about slavery during his lifetime is seen by some historians as a tragically missed opportunity. One major reason Washington did not emancipate his slaves earlier was because his economic well-being depended on the institution. He did not speak out publicly against slavery, argues historian Dorothy Twohig, because he did not wish to risk splitting apart the young republic over what was already a sensitive and divisive issue.[23]

Presidency: 1789–1797 : George Washington's Presidency

In 1796, Gilbert Stuart painted this famous portrait of Washington from life, and then used the unfinished painting to create numerous others, including the image used on the U.S. one-dollar bill.
Washington was elected unanimously by the Electoral College in 1789, and he remains the only person ever to be elected president unanimously (a feat which he duplicated in the 1792 election). As runner-up with 34 votes (each elector cast two votes), John Adams became vice president. Washington took the oath of office as the first President on April 30, 1789 at Federal Hall in New York City.[11]
The First U.S. Congress voted to pay Washington a salary of $25,000 a year—a large sum in 1789. Washington, already wealthy, declined the salary, since he valued his image as a selfless public servant. At the urging of Congress, however, he ultimately accepted the payment. A dangerous precedent could have been set otherwise, as the founding fathers wanted future presidents to come from a large pool of potential candidates - not just those citizens that could afford to do the work for free.
Washington attended carefully to the pomp and ceremony of office, making sure that the titles and trappings were suitably republican and never emulated European royal courts. To that end, he preferred the title "Mr. President" to the more majestic names suggested.
Washington proved an able administrator. An excellent delegator and judge of talent and character, he held regular cabinet meetings, which debated issues; he then made the final decision and moved on. In handling routine tasks, he was "systematic, orderly, energetic, solicitous of the opinion of others but decisive, intent upon general goals and the consistency of particular actions with them."[12]
Washington only reluctantly agreed to serve a second term of office as president. He refused to run for a third, establishing the precedent of a maximum of two terms for a president.[13]
Domestic issues
Washington was not a member of any political party, and hoped that they would not be formed. His closest advisors, however, became divided into two factions, setting the framework for political parties. Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton, who had bold plans to establish the national credit and build a financially powerful nation, formed the basis of the Federalist Party. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, founder of the Jeffersonian Republicans, strenuously opposed Hamilton's agenda, but Hamilton had Washington's ear, not Jefferson.
In 1791, Congress imposed an excise tax on distilled spirits, which led to protests in frontier districts, especially Pennsylvania. By 1794, after Washington ordered the protesters to appear in U.S. district court, the protests turned into full-scale riots known as the Whiskey Rebellion. The federal army was too small to be used, so Washington invoked the Militia Law of 1792 to summon the militias of Pennsylvania, Virginia and several other states. The governors sent the troops and Washington took command, marching into the rebellious districts. There was no fighting, but Washington's forceful action proved the new government could protect itself. It also was one of only two times that a sitting President would personally command the military in the field: the other was after President James Madison fled the burning White House in the War of 1812. These events marked the first time under the new constitution that the federal government used strong military force to exert authority over the states and citizens.
Foreign affairs
In 1793, the revolutionary government of France sent diplomat Edmond-Charles Genêt, called "Citizen Genêt," to America. Genêt issued letters of marque and reprisal to American ships so they could capture British merchant ships. He attempted to turn popular sentiment towards American involvement in the French war against Britain by creating a network of Democratic-Republican Societies in major cities. Washington rejected this interference in domestic affairs, demanded the French government recall Genêt, and denounced his societies.
To normalize trade relations with Britain, remove them from western forts, and resolve financial debts left over from the Revolution, Hamilton and Washington designed the Jay Treaty. It was negotiated by John Jay, and signed on November 19, 1794. The Jeffersonians supported France and strongly attacked the treaty. Washington and Hamilton, however, mobilized public opinion and won ratification by the Senate by emphasizing Washington's support. The British agreed to depart their forts around the Great Lakes, the Canadian-U.S. boundary was adjusted, numerous pre-Revolutionary debts were liquidated, and the British opened their West Indies colonies to the American trade. Most important, the treaty avoided war with Britain and instead brought a decade of prosperous trade with Britain. It angered the French and became a central issue in the political debates of the emerging First Party System.
Farewell Address
Washington's Farewell Address (issued as a public letter in 1796) was one of the most influential statements of American political values. [14] Drafted primarily by Washington himself, with help from Hamilton, it gives advice on the necessity and importance of national union, the value of the Constitution and the rule of law, the evils of political parties, and the proper virtues of a republican people. In the address, he called morality "a necessary spring of popular government." He suggests that "reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle." Washington thus makes the point that the value of religion is for the benefit of society as a whole. [15]
Washington warns against foreign influence in domestic affairs and American meddling in European affairs. He warns against bitter partisanship in domestic politics and called for men to move beyond partisanship and serve the common good. He called for an America wholly free of foreign attachments, as the United States must concentrate only on American interests. He counseled friendship and commerce with all nations, but warned against involvement in European wars and entering into long-term alliances. The address quickly set American values regarding religion and foreign affairs, and his advice was often repeated in political discourse well into the twentieth century; not until the 1949 formation of NATO would the United States again sign a treaty of alliance with a foreign nation. Washington strictures against political parties were ignored at the time and ever since.

George Washington in the American Revolution

After fighting broke out in April 1775, Washington appeared at the Second Continental Congress in military uniform, signaling that he was prepared for war. Washington had the prestige, the military experience, the charisma and military bearing, the reputation of being a strong patriot, and he was supported by the South, especially Virginia. There was no serious competition. Congress created the Continental Army on June 14; the next day on the nomination of John Adams of Massachusetts it selected Washington as commander-in-chief. Washington assumed command of the American forces in Massachusetts in July 1775, during the ongoing siege of Boston. Realising his army's desperate shortage of gunpowder, Washington asked for new sources. British arsenals were raided (including some in the West Indies) and some manufacturing was attempted; a barely adequate supply (about 2.5 million pounds) was obtained by the end of 1776, mostly from France. [8]
Washington reorganized the army during the long standoff, and forced the British to withdraw by putting artillery on Dorchester Heights overlooking the city. The British evacuated Boston and Washington moved his army to New York City.


Depiction by John Trumbull of the surrender of Lord Cornwallis's army at Yorktown
As Bickham (2002) shows, Washington was widely admired in Britain, where the press was virtually unanimous in portraying him in a positive light. Although negative toward the patriots in the Continental Congress, British newspapers routinely praised Washington's personal character and qualities as a military commander. Moreover, both sides of the aisle in Parliament found the American general's courage, endurance, and attentiveness to the welfare of his troops worthy of approbation and examples of the virtues they and most other Britons found wanting in their own commanders. Washington's refusal to become involved in politics buttressed his reputation as a man fully committed to the military mission at hand and above the factional fray.

In August 1776, British General William Howe launched a massive naval and land campaign to capture New York designed to seize New York City and offer a negotiated settlement. Several defeats against Howe sent Washington scrambling out of New York and across New Jersey, leaving the future of the Continental Army in doubt. On the night of December 25, 1776, Washington staged a counterattack, leading the American forces across the Delaware River to capture nearly 1,000 Hessians in Trenton, New Jersey.
Washington was defeated at the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777. On September 26, Howe outmaneuvered Washington and marched into Philadelphia unopposed. Washington's army unsuccessfully attacked the British garrison at Germantown in early October. Meanwhile Burgoyne, out of reach from help from Howe, was trapped and forced to surrender his entire army at Saratoga. The victory caused France to enter the war as an open ally, turning the Revolution into a major world-wide war. Washington's loss of Philadelphia prompted some members of Congress to discuss removing Washington from command. This episode failed after Washington's supporters rallied behind him.[9]
Washington's army encamped at Valley Forge in December 1777, where it stayed for the next six months. Over the winter, 2,500 men (out of 10,000) died from disease and exposure. The next spring, however, the army emerged from Valley Forge in good order, thanks in part to a full-scale training program supervised by Baron von Steuben, a veteran of the Prussian general staff. The British evacuated Philadelphia in 1778 and returned to New York City. Meanwhile, Washington remained with his army outside New York. He delievered the final blow in 1781, after a French naval victory allowed American and French forces to trap a British army in Virginia. The surrender at Yorktown on October 17, 1781 marked the end of fighting. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized the independence of the United States.


Depiction by John Trumbull of Washington resigning his commission as commander-in-chief
In March 1783, Washington used his influence to disperse a group of Army officers who had threatened to confront Congress regarding their back pay. Washington disbanded his army and, on November 2, gave an eloquent farewell address to his soldiers.[10] A few days later, the British evacuated New York City, and Washington and the governor took possession of the city; at Fraunces Tavern in the city on December 4, he formally bade his officers farewell. On December 23, 1783, Washington resigned his commission as commander-in-chief to the Congress of the Confederation.
Washington's retirement to Mount Vernon was short-lived. He was persuaded to attend the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787, and he was unanimously elected president of the Convention. For the most part, he did not participate in the debates involved (though he did participate in voting for or against the various articles), but his prestige was great enough to maintain collegiality and to keep the delegates at their labors. The delegates designed the presidency with Washington in mind, and allowed him to define the office once elected. After the Convention, his support convinced many, including the Virginia legislature, to vote for ratification; all 13 states did ratify the new Constitution.

George Washington

George Washington (February 22, 1732 – December 14, 1799)[1] led America's Continental Army to victory over Britain in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), and was later elected the first President of the United States under the U.S. Constitution (eight Presidents of the Continental Congress, a position most analogous to Speaker of the House, had served under the Articles of Confederation). He served two four-year terms from 1789 to 1797, being re-elected in 1792. Because of his central and critical role in the founding of the United States, Washington is referred to as father of the nation. His devotion to republicanism and civic virtue made him an exemplary figure among early American politicians.
In his youth, Washington worked as a surveyor of rural lands and acquired what would become invaluable knowledge of the terrain around his native state of Virginia. Washington gained command experience during the French and Indian War (1754–1763). Due to this experience, his military bearing, his enormous charisma, his leadership of the patriot cause in Virginia, and his political base in the largest colony, the Second Continental Congress chose him, in 1775, as their commander-in-chief of the American army.
In 1776, he victoriously forced the British out of Boston. But, later that same year, was badly defeated, and nearly captured, when he lost New York City. However, in the bitter-cold dead of night, he revived the patriot cause, by crossing the Delaware river in New Jersey and defeating the surprised enemy units. As a result of his strategic oversight, Revolutionary forces captured the two main British combat armies, first at Saratoga in 1777 and then at Yorktown in 1781. He handled relations with the states and their militias, dealt with disputing generals and colonels, and worked with Congress to supply and recruit the Continental army. Negotiating with Congress, the colonial states, and French allies, he held together a tenuous army and fragile birthing nation, amid the constant threats of disintegration and failure. He was also the country's first spymaster[2].
Following the end of the war in 1783, Washington emulated the Roman general Cincinnatus, and retired to his plantation on Mount Vernon, an exemplar of the republican ideal of citizen leadership who rejected power. Alarmed in the late 1780s at the many weaknesses of the new nation under the Articles of Confederation, he presided over the Constitutional Convention that drafted the much stronger United States Constitution in 1787.
In 1789, Washington became President of the United States and promptly established many of the customs and usages of the new government's executive department. He sought to create a great nation capable of surviving in a world torn asunder by war between Britain and France. His Proclamation of Neutrality of 1793 provided a basis for avoiding any involvement in foreign conflicts. He supported Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton's plans to build a strong central government by funding the national debt, implementing an effective tax system, and creating a national bank. When rebels in Pennsylvania defied Federal authority, he rode at the head of the army to authoritatively quell the Whiskey Rebellion. Washington avoided the temptation of war and began a decade of peace with Britain via the Jay Treaty in 1795; he used his immense prestige to get it ratified over intense opposition from the Jeffersonians. Although he never officially joined the Federalist Party, he supported its programs and was its inspirational leader. By refusing to pursue a third term, he made it the enduring norm that no U.S. President should seek more than two. Washington's Farewell Address was a primer on republican virtue and a stern warning against involvement in foreign wars.
As the symbol of republicanism in practice, Washington embodied American values and across the world was seen as the symbol of the new nation. Scholars perennially rank him among the three greatest U.S. Presidents. During Washington's funeral oration, Henry Lee said that of among all Americans, he was "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." (See Legacy, below.)
Contents
[hide]
1 Early life
2 French and Indian War
3 Between the wars
4 American Revolution
5 Presidency: 1789–1797
5.1 Domestic issues
5.2 Foreign affairs
5.3 Farewell Address
5.4 Speeches
5.4.1 Inaugural Addresses
5.4.2 State of the Union Address
5.5 Major acts as President
5.5.1 Legislation signed into law
5.5.2 Legislation vetoed
5.6 Administration and cabinet
5.7 Supreme Court appointments
5.8 States admitted to Union
6 Retirement and death
7 Legacy
7.1 Monuments and memorials
7.2 Washington and slavery
8 Religious beliefs
9 Interest in sport
10 Family
11 Myths and misconceptions
12 See also
13 References: biographies
14 Further reading
14.1 Primary sources
14.2 "Patriarch: George Washington and the New American Nation"
14.3 Scholarly studies
15 Notes
16 External links
Early life
Main article: George Washington's early life
George Washington was born on February 22, 1732 (February 11, 1731, O.S.), the first son of Augustine Washington and his second wife, Mary Ball Washington, on the family estate (later known as Wakefield) in Westmoreland County, Virginia. Of a wealthy family with firm roots in the Old Country, Washington embarked upon a career as a planter and in 1748 was invited to go with the party that was to survey Baron Fairfax's lands west of the Blue Ridge. In 1749 he was appointed to his first public office, surveyor of newly created Culpeper County, and through his half-brother Lawrence Washington he became interested in the Ohio Company, which had as its object the exploitation of Western lands. After Lawrence's death (1752), George inherited part of his estate and took over some of Lawrence's duties as adjutant of the colony. As district adjutant, which made (December 1752) him Major Washington at the age of 20, he was charged with training the militia in the quarter assigned him. In Fredricksburg, also at the age of 20, Washington joined the Freemasons, a fraternal organization that became a lifelong influence.
French and Indian War
Main article: George Washington in the French and Indian War


This, the earliest portrait of Washington, was painted in 1772 by Charles Willson Peale, and shows Washington in uniform as colonel of the Virginia Regiment.
At 22 years of age Washington fired some of the first shots of the French and Indian War, soon to become part of the worldwide Seven Years' War. The trouble began in 1753, when France began building a series of forts in the Ohio Country, a region also claimed by Virginia. Governor Dinwiddie sent young Major Washington to the Ohio Country to assess French military strength and intentions, and ask the French to leave. When the French refused, Washington's published report was widely read in both Virginia and Britain. In 1754, Dinwiddie sent Washington, now commissioned a Lieutenant Colonel in the newly created Virginia Regiment, to drive the French away. Along with his American Indian allies, Washington and his troops ambushed a French scouting party of some 30 men led by Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville, sent from Fort Duquesne to discover if Washington had in fact invaded French-claimed territory. Were this to be the case he was to send word back to the fort, then deliver a formal summons to Washington calling on him to withdraw. His small force was an embassy, resembling Washington’s to Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre the preceding year, and he neglected to post sentries around his encampment. At daybreak on the 28th, Washington with 40 men stole up on the French camp near present Jumonville, Pa. Some were still asleep, others preparing breakfast. Without warning, Washington gave the order to fire. The Canadians who escaped the volley scrambled for their weapons, but were swiftly overwhelmed. Jumonville, the French later claimed, was struck down while trying to proclaim his official summons. Ten of the Canadians were killed, one wounded, all but one of the rest taken prisoner. Washington and his men then retired, leaving the bodies of their victims for the wolves. Washington then built Fort Necessity, which soon proved inadequate, as he was soon compelled to surrender to a larger French and Indian force. The surrender terms that Washington signed included an admission that he had assassinated Jumonville. Because the French claimed that Jumonville's party had been on a diplomatic (rather than military) mission, the "Jumonville affair" became an international incident and helped to ignite a wider war. Washington was released by the French with his promise not to return to the Ohio Country for one year. Back in Virginia, Governor Dinwiddie broke up the Virginia Regiment into independent companies; Washington resigned from active military service rather than accept a demotion to captain.
In 1755, British General Edward Braddock headed a major effort to retake the Ohio Country. Washington eagerly volunteered to serve as one of Braddock's aides, although the British officers held the colonials in contempt.[3] The expedition ended in disaster at the Battle of the Monongahela. Washington distinguished himself in the debacle—he had two horses shot out from under him, and four bullets pierced his coat—yet, he sustained no injuries and showed coolness under fire. While Washington's exact leadership role during the battle has been debated, biographer Joseph Ellis asserts that Washington rode back and forth across the battlefield, rallying the remnant of the British and Virginian forces to a retreat. In Virginia, Washington was acclaimed as a hero.
In fall 1755, Governor Dinwiddie appointed Washington commander in chief of all Virginia forces, with rank of colonel, with responsibility for defending 300 miles (480 km) of mountainous frontier with about 300 men. Washington supervised savage, frontier warfare that averaged two engagements a month. His letters show he was moved by the plight of the frontiersmen he was protecting. With too few troops and inadequate supplies, lacking sufficient authority with which to maintain complete discipline, and hampered by an antagonistic governor, he had a severe challenge. In 1758, he took part in the Forbes Expedition, which successfully drove the French away from Fort Duquesne.
Washington's goal at the outset of his military career had been to secure a commission as a British officer, which had more prestige than serving in the provincial military. However, the British officers had disdain for the amateurish, non-aristocratic Americans. Washington's commission never came; in 1758, Washington resigned from active military service and spent the next sixteen years as a Virginia planter and politician.[4]
Between the wars
Main article: George Washington between the wars

Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Journal of George Washington


A mezzotint of Martha Dandridge Custis, based on a 1757 portrait by John Wollaston.
On January 6, 1759, Washington married Martha Dandridge Custis, a widow. They had a good marriage, and together raised her two children, John Parke Custis and Martha Parke Custis, affectionately called "Jackie" and "Patsy". Later the Washingtons raised two of Mrs. Washington's grandchildren, Eleanor Parke Custis and George Washington Parke Custis. George and Martha never had any children together—his earlier bout with smallpox followed, possibly, by tuberculosis may have made him sterile. The newlywed couple moved to Mount Vernon, where he took up the life of a genteel planter and political figure.[5]
Washington's marriage to a wealthy widow greatly increased his property holdings and social standing. He acquired one-third of the 18,000-acre (73 km²) Custis estate upon his marriage, and managed the remainder on behalf of Martha's children. He frequently purchased additional acreage in his own name, and was granted land in what is now West Virginia as a bounty for his service in the French and Indian War. By 1775, Washington had doubled the size of Mount Vernon to 6,500 acres (26 km²), with over 100 slaves. As a respected military hero and large landowner, he held local office and was elected to the Virginia provincial legislature, the House of Burgesses, beginning in 1758.[6]
Washington first took a leading role in the growing colonial resistance in 1769, when he introduced a proposal drafted by his friend George Mason which called for Virginia to boycott imported English goods until the Townshend Acts were repealed. Parliament repealed the Acts in 1770. Washington regarded the passage of the Intolerable Acts in 1774 as "an Invasion of our Rights and Privileges". In July 1774, he chaired the meeting at which the Fairfax Resolves were adopted, which called for, among other things, the convening of a Continental Congress. In August, he attended the First Virginia Convention, where he was selected as a delegate to the First Continental Congress.[7]

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The National Socialist German Workers Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (help·info)), better known as the NSDAP or the Nazi Party was a political party that was led to power in Germany by Adolf Hitler in 1933. The term Nazi is a short form of the German word Nationalsozialist shortened to two syllables, and spelled with -zi, because the ti syllable is pronounced [tsi] in German (National Socialist), reflecting the ideology of the NSDAP. After Hitler's appointment as Chancellor and the democratic election of the party to lead the German government in 1933, the NSDAP organized and established the Third Reich.
The NSDAP was the main political force in Nazi Germany from the fall of the Weimar Republic in 1933 until the end of World War II in 1945, when it was declared illegal and its leaders were arrested and convicted of crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg Trials. The beliefs and practices of the Nazi Party gave rise to a significantly new political ideology, commonly known as "Nazism".
Party history
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Origins

Nazi Hoheitsadler: Eagle on swastika symbol
In the beginning of 1918, a party called the Freier Ausschuss für einen deutschen Arbeiterfrieden (Free Committee for a German Workers' Peace) was created in Bremen, Germany. (6) Anton Drexler, locksmith and poet, formed a branch of this league on March 7, 1918, in Munich. In 1919, Drexler, with Gottfried Feder, Dietrich Eckart and Karl Harrer, changed its name to the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (German Workers' Party, abbreviated DAP). This party was the formal forerunner of the NSDAP, and became one of many völkisch movements that existed in Germany after its defeat in World War I. In order to investigate the DAP, German army intelligence sent a young corporal, Adolf Hitler, to monitor party activities. However, he was impressed by what he saw, and he joined as Member Number 555, although Hitler later claimed to be "Party Member number 7" to make it look like he was a founder. He was, in actual fact, only the 55th member of the DAP but the party began its membership totals from 500 in order to appear larger. He was in fact the 7th member of the DAP's central committee. At this early stage, Hitler brought up the idea of renaming the party, and he proposed the name "Social Revolutionary Party" (4). However, Rudolf Jung insisted that the party should follow the pattern of Austria's Deutsche Nationalsozialistische Arbeiterpartei. As a consequence, the DAP was shortly renamed the NSDAP on February 24, 1920.
Other early members of the Nazi Party include Rudolf Buttmann, director general of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (Bavarian State Library), and Hermann Esser, editor of the Völkischer Beobachter.
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Struggle for power
Adolf Hitler became Nazi Party chairman on July 28, 1921, and at once began a program where the Nazi Party became a radical and revolutionary organization. The Sturmabteilung (storm troopers) was founded under Hans Ulrich Klintzsch that same year and began a policy of expanding the Nazi Party by way of fear, intimidation, and violent attacks on other political parties.
In these early years, the Nazi Party was confined mainly to the city of Munich in Bavaria. Splinter Nazi groups did exist elsewhere in Germany; however, the programs and agendas were such that, even among the Nazis, such extra-Bavarian Nazi groups were considered separate from the main Nazi Party as a whole.
Disaster presented itself in 1923 when the Nazi Party attempted to seize control of the Bavarian government in the so-called "Beer Hall Putsch". The two-day revolution was crushed by Munich authorities, and several Nazis were killed in the process. Hitler and his top Nazi advisors were tried and convicted of treason. Sentences ranged from 12 to 18 months, with Hitler serving his term at Landsberg prison. Hitler's sentence was actually for five years but he ended up instead serving much less time, (only 9 months). During this period, from 1923 to 1925, the Nazi Party ceased to exist. However, Hitler spent the time writing Mein Kampf, detailing how he would accomplish a political comeback once he was released from prison.
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Reborn Nazi Party


Early leaders of the Nazi Party (left to right): Heinz Pernet, Friedrich Weber, Wilhelm Frick, Hermann Kriebel, Erich Ludendorff, Adolf Hitler, Wilhelm Brückner, Ernst Röhm, Robert Wagner
Upon Adolf Hitler's release from prison in 1925, the NSDAP was refounded, with Hitler taking Party membership number 1. That same year, the Schutzstaffel (SS) was founded. The evolution of the party, during this era, is an integral part of the decline of the Weimar State.
The second Nazi Party made use of anti-capitalist Gottfried Feder as economic theoretician. Rudolf Jung supplied the reborn Nazi Party with a ready-made ideology that he carried with him from Czechoslovakia. It was a 25-point program. Hitler added his ideas about foreign policy, and Julius Streicher added his more virulent anti-Semitic views.
Between 1925 and 1929, the Nazis competed poorly in elections. In the election of 1930, however, the Nazis (propelled by Germany's economic problems in the incipient Great Depression) increased their vote dramatically, becoming the second-largest party in the Reichstag. The NSDAP continued to improve its position in the years thereafter, despite a brief ban in 1932 of the SA (the party's private army). In the elections of 1932 the party reached a total of 13.75 million votes and so became the largest voting bloc in the Reichstag.
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Seizure of Power
After substantial coercion and the threat of a military coup, Hitler got himself appointed Chancellor of a coalition government by President Paul von Hindenburg in January 1933. His coalition partners were the right-wing Nationalists led by Alfred Hugenberg, the press baron, and his Vice-Chancellor was the ex-Centre Party politician and former Chancellor Franz von Papen.
On February 27, 1933, the Reichstag parliament building was set on fire. This Reichstag fire was promptly blamed on a Communist conspiracy, and used as an excuse by the Nazis to close the Communist Party of Germany's offices, ban its press and arrest its leaders. Furthermore, Hitler convinced the ageing and senile President von Hindenburg to sign the Reichstag Fire Decree, suspending most of the human rights provided for by the 1919 constitution of the Weimar Republic. A further decree enabled for preventative detention of all the Communist deputies, amongst many thousands of others.


Nazi leader Adolf Hitler at a parade.
Since the new government lacked a majority in parliament, Hitler held a Reichtstag election in March of 1933. The Nazis obtained 43.9%; with their right-wing Nationalist DNVP allies included, they controlled a simple parliamentary 51.8% majority coalition.
A decisive step on Hitler's way to becoming dictator was the so called "Enabling Act", which granted the cabinet - and in fact Hitler - legislative powers. However, since the Enabling Act allowed for deviations from the constitution, a two thirds majority was required. Hitler needed the votes of the Centre Party and after promising certain guarantees to the Centre's chairman Ludwig Kaas, the party voted in favour of the Enabling Act. The Centre Party's thirty-one votes added to the fragmented middle-class parties and the right-wing Nationalists (DNVP) and gave Hitler the right to rule by his own decree and to further suspend many civil liberties.
The Enabling Act, termed for four years, gave the government the power to enact laws without parliamentary approval, to enact foreign treaties abroad and even to make changes to the Constitution. The Social Democratic Party of Germany alone valiantly protested the Act from being passed. As the Reichstag met in the Kroll Opera House, patrolled and harangued by brown-shirted SA men, the Enabling Act passed and, as punishment for their dissent, the Social Democrats became the second party banned by the Nazis (on 22 June) following the move of their leadership to Prague.
After all parties were either banned or pressed into dissolving themselves, the Nazi government banned the formation of new parties on July 14, 1933, turning Germany into a one-party state. This was part of the Gleichschaltung. Hitler kept the Reichstag as a pulpit, while the Reichsrat, though never abolished, sank into oblivion. The legislative bodies of the German states soon followed in the same manner, with the German federal government taking over most state and local legislative powers.
Hitler also tried to incorporate the Churches into his new regime. On March 23, 1933 he had called them "most important factors" for the maintenance of German well-being. In regard to the Roman Catholic Church, he proposed the Reichskonkordat between Germany and the Holy See, that was signed in July. In regard to the Protestant Church, he used church elections to push the Nazi-inspired "German Christians" to power. This however provoked the internal opposition of the "Confessing Church".


The Nazi party's 1936 Nuremberg Rally was its largest.
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Consolidation of power
Between 1934 and 1939, the NSDAP began a series of measures to merge the NSDAP and the German government into one entity. It was also during this time that Nazi racial views were transferred to legal practice with Germany becoming an anti-Semitic and racialist state after the passing of the Nuremberg Laws in 1935.
Hitler’s first act to merge the Nazi party and German government was upon the death of President Paul von Hindenburg in August of 1934. Three hours before Hindenburg died, Hitler's government passed a law to take effect on Hindenburg's death which prescribed that the office of President would be merged with that of the Chancellor and that Hitler would henceforth be the Führer und Reichkanzler of Germany. By this action, Hitler made himself Head of State, Head of Government and Chairman of the Nazi party combined into one single office.
In the mid 1930s, the Nazi Party appointed and staffed nearly the entire German government with Nazi Party officials. In addition, the SS had by 1936 become the state police service controlling all aspects of law enforcement and political enforcement. By the time World War II began in 1939, there was virtually no distinction between the Nazi Party and the Government of Germany with the two being considered one and the same.
The original act which made Hitler dictator of Germany, the Enabling Act, was renewed in 1937 and then in 1941 for an indefinite term. Even as late as 1944, however, there were those in Germany who believed that the Nazis were simply a political party who were currently in power but could be voted out of office when and if the German people so chose. On paper, at least, Hitler’s dictatorship was not to last forever and some Germans saw the Enabling Act as temporary only until World War II was over at which time Germany would again become a democratic country with a Presidency and Chancellorship split into two separate offices once again (this is what in fact happened when Hitler killed himself in 1945). Most likely, however, had Germany triumphed in World War II Hitler would have become dictator for life.
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Post World War II Nazi Party
The Nazi Party ceased to exist in May 1945 when Law Number 2 of the Allied Control Council declared the Nazi party disbanded and the Nazi party, itself, illegal. Since then there have been several attempts to reorganize Nazi or pro-Nazi organizations in Germany. In 1949 the Socialist Reich Party was formed in West Germany after a split from the German Empire Party. SRP was banned in 1952 by the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany on the grounds of being threatening the BRD constitution.
The National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) was founded November 28, 1964 as a political party in West Germany. The NPD advocated a program nearly identical to old Nazi ideals and began combining various Neo-Nazi groups under its authority. This, in combination with a leadership of former Nazis from the Hitler era, became very alarming to the West German government and the allied occupation forces still technically in charge of Germany. Efforts were made in the 1960s to have the NPD declared a direct successor to the Nazi Party and disbanded under West German law, however the Party survived to a large enough extent that it still maintains a presence in German politics to this day.
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Nazi Party Structure
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1921 – 1923
When the Nazi party was first established in February 1920, it consisted of a leadership board based in Munich, Bavaria with a general membership of just under 2000. The NSDAP Leadership Board was democratically elected who, in turn, elected a Board Chairman. On July 29, 1921, Adolf Hitler was elected Chairman of the Nazi Party after previously having served as “Party Speaker” in the summer of 1920. The exact circumstances of Hitler having been elected as Chairman have been lost in history, but it is certainly one of the pivotal events in German politics. Hitler’s charisma no doubt played a part in his assumption of the Chairmanship as did promises to the leadership board that the Nazi Party would grow in numbers and achieve great power and prosperity.
Almost immediately, Hitler abandoned all democratic notions in the Nazi party. He declared himself the Führer of the Party and the leadership board became a permanent “inner circle”. Many top Nazis of the Second World War can trace their political beginnings to this point.
By the end of 1921, the Nazi Party had become more or less a paramilitary radical organization. All Nazi Party members wore paramilitary uniforms and the Sturmabteilung (SA) had been founded that same year based on the model of the old Freikorps. By 1923, the Nazi party and the SA stormtroopers were considered almost one and the same with the first Nazi paramilitary ranks, those being the ranks and insignia of the Sturmabteilung, in use.
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1925 – 1933
Following the abortive Beer Hall Putsch, and a two year period of the Nazi Party having been disbanded, the NSDAP was refounded under a more benign platform that the Party would only seek power through legal means and by use of the Weimar Republic democratic system. To accomplish this, it was necessary for the Nazi party to expand outside of Bavaria and in this way a new Nazi organizational system developed which would last until the Party’s collapse in 1945.
The NSDAP of 1925 was divided into two “classes”, those being the leadership corps of the Nazi Party, known as the Korps der politischen Leiter, and the general membership known as the Parteimitglieder. Gone were the days where all Nazis wore paramilitary uniforms with the average Nazi Party member indistinguishable from the general citizenry. For the first time, the Nazi Party also began to admit women.
The SA stormtroopers were refounded in 1925 as was another Nazi paramilitary group, the Schutzstaffel (SS). These organizations, and the many Nazi paramilitary groups that would follow, were considered “support groups” to the Nazi Party as a whole and all members of these groups had first to become regular Nazi Party members. It was also possible for a Nazi Party member to not join a paramilitary group but simple serve as a regular Nazi Mitglied. The Hitler Youth, with origins in 1921 was a Nazi youth corps group whose members were not actually Nazi party members, but were in training to be so.
The leadership of the NSDAP in the late 1920s began at the top with Adolf Hitler and extended to his inner circle from the early days of the Party. As the Nazis were now operating on a national level, The position of Reichsleiter (Reich Leader), was intended for the most senior of Nazis who were part of the inner circle.
The NSDAP also maintained the position of Gauleiter who was a Nazi headman in a particular region of Germany. A Gaue was roughly analogous to a province. There where thirty-four Gaue for Germany and an additional seven for Austria, the Sudetenland (in Czechslovakia), Danzig and the Saarland (then under French occupation). In 1932 the NSDAP spread to Switzerland; its branch was founded at Davos by Wilhelm Gustloff.
Beneath the Gauleiters were several junior Nazi political leaders with a variety of titles such as Kreisleiter (County Leader), Zellenleiter (Cell Leader) and Blockleiter (Block Leader). Such Nazi political officers wore paramilitary brown uniforms, the same as Hitler and his senior Nazi inner circle. In this way, the first Nazi Party ranks came into being.
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1933 – 1938


NSDAP Organizational Chart published in 1934
When Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, the Nazi Party suddenly found itself in control of a modern state government. Hitler and Nazi ideologists had foreseen that for Germany to become a dictatorship, the Nazi Party and the German government had to become one and the same. To accomplish this, measures were enacted to merge the German government with the Nazi Party. On the federal level, all German Ministries were staffed with Nazi officials who, in turn, appointed other Nazis to civil service positions within the government. A vast and complex Nazi party civil service system then developed which had, by 1935, completely taken over the German government. Such Nazi Party government officials held regular government postings, but also held ranks in the Nazi Party, wore paramilitary uniforms (a wide variety of which existed by this time) and reported to Adolf Hitler both as the Chancellor of Germany and the Führer of the Nazi Party.
On the state and local level, German town and city governments were allowed to continue as before but the Nazi Party political chain, extending upwards to the Gauleiters, existed side by side with the local government establishments.
Thus, a town could possibly have a non-Nazi Bürgermeister and town council, but such persons were merely “rubber stamps” for the local head Nazi leader.
In 1933, the paramilitary groups of the Nazi Party began merging with the German state, as well, the most notable of which was the SS which would eventually take over all law enforcement functions of Germany and also serve as a political police force. The German Labor Front was another state run Nazi Party organization along with several less known Nazi paramilitary groups.
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1938 – 1939
By 1938, there was virtually no distinction between the Nazi Party and the German government. Hitler, by this time, had merged the office of Chancellor and President into the new office of Führer und Reichkanzler of Germany and remained Führer of the Nazi Party. The swastika flag was now the official Flag of Germany and the German armed forces now wore Nazi insignia and swore personal allegiance to Hitler. In addition, nearly all Nazi Party paramilitary groups were sponsored and in some way connected to the German government.
When Austria was annexed by Germany in the Anschluss of 1938, the existing Austrian Nazi Party was quickly installed to replace the old Austrian government. By 1939, Austria had been completely incorporated into Germany with the leadership of Austria little more than a local Nazi administration taking orders from Berlin. When Czechoslovakia was added to German gains, the newly formed “Reich Protectorate” was a strict dictatorship which would eventually come under the control of the SS in the person of Reinhard Heydrich.
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1939 – 1945
During World War II, the Nazi Party continued as usual in the homeland of the “Greater German Reich” with the federal government staffed by Nazis and the local and state governments under the control of Nazi political leaders.
As Germany expanded its territory and began conquering other countries, the Nazi Party began establishing dictatorial regimes to replace the fallen governments, all of which were controlled by Nazi appointed puppet leaders with the exception of France which was run by a military government under the control of the Wehrmacht.
The General Government of Poland was the most ruthless of all the installed Nazi Party regimes with the “Reichkommisariats”, established in Russia, coming in a close second. Rule in these regions was based on ruthless terror with civilian reprisals and instant executions a common occurrence.
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Party composition
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General membership
The general membership of the Nazi Party, known as the Partei Mitglieder, mainly consisted of the urban and rural lower middle classes. Seven percent belonged to the upper class, seven percent were peasants, thirty five percent were industrial workers and fifty one percent were what can be described as middle class. The largest single occupational group was elementary school teachers. You were forced to join the Nazi Socialist party if you were in public service, or lose your job.
When the Nazi Party began in the 1920s, it averaged 2000 members. When the Nazi Party came to power in 1933, party membership had risen to 2.5 million. In 1945, when the Nazi Party was disbanded, official membership rolls listed a total of 8.5 million.
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Military membership
Nazi members with military ambitions were encouraged to join the Waffen SS, but a great number enlisted in the Wehrmacht and even more were drafted for service after World War II began. Early regulations required that all Wehrmacht members be non-political, and therefore any National Socialist member joining in the 1930s was required to resign from the Nazi Party.
This regulation was soon waived, however, and there is ample evidence that full Nazi Party members served in the Wehrmacht in particular after the outbreak of World War II. The Wehrmacht Reserves also saw a high number of senior Nazis enlisting, with such figures as Reinhard Heydrich and Fritz Todt joining the Luftwaffe, as well as Karl Hanke who served in the Army.
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Paramilitary groups
In addition to the NSDAP proper, several paramilitary groups existed which "supported" Nazi aims. All such members of these paramilitary organizations were required to become regular Nazi Party members first, and could then enlist in the group of their choice. A vast system of Nazi party paramilitary ranks developed for each of the various paramilitary groups.
The major Nazi Party paramilitary groups were as follows:
Schutzstaffel (SS): Protection Service
Sturmabteilung (SA): Storm Troopers
Nationalsozialistisches Fliegerkorps (NSFK): National Socialist Flyers Corps
Nationalsozialistisches Kraftfahrerkorps (NSKK): National Socialist Motor Corps
The Hitler Youth was a paramilitary group divided into an adult leadership corps and a general membership open to boys aged fourteen to eighteen.
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Party symbols
Nazi Flags: The Nazi party used a right-facing swastika as their symbol and the red and black colors were said to represent Blut und Boden (blood and soil). Black, white, and red were in fact the colors of the old North German Confederation flag (invented by Otto von Bismarck, based on the Prussian colors black and white). In 1871, with the foundation of the German Reich, the flag of the North German Confederation became the German Reichsflagge (Reich's flag). Black, white, and red became the colors of the nationalists through the following history (for example World War I and the Weimar Republic).
Swastika
The Roman Eagle
Nazi anthem: Horst Wessel Lied.
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Sayings, mottos and slogans
"Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil!"
"Hail Victory" (common Nazi chant at rallies)
"Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer!"
"One people, one nation, one leader!".
"Deutschland, erwache!"
"Germany, Awake!" (Coined by Dietrich Eckart, this was the title to a popular Nazi song and put on many propaganda banners.) (5)
"Die Juden sind unser Unglück!"
"The Jews are our misfortune!"
"Lang lebe unser ruhmvoller Führer!"
"Long live our glorious leader!"
"Heute Deutschland, morgen die Welt!"
"Today Germany, tomorrow the world!"
"Die Deutschen immer vor dem Ausländer und den Juden!"
"The German always before the foreigner and Jew!"
"Sicher ist der Jude auch ein Mann, aber der Floh ist auch ein Tier"
"Certainly the Jew is also a man, but the flea is also an animal".
"Arbeit; Freiheit; Brot"
"Work; Freedom; Bread"